Wednesday, May 03, 2006

Gay Soap In Cuba Shows Progress (And Lack Of It)

Fans of Castro's Cuba like to forget how he has jailed gays over the years, treated AIDS victims like lepers and tortured and killed poets, among other niceties. But a new telenovela is creating a stir for depicting a bisexual man (they didn't even make him gay?) who is married but has an affair with a male friend. It's a big hit and the talk of the town. But most of the talk just shows how far Cuba has to go to enter the 20th Century (not to mention the 21st). The actor who played the role can't get other work because people asusme he's gay or just don't want to be associated with it in any way. Old men in a park insist they don't watch it because it's disgusting. And one woman finds it instructional. Instructional about the cruel prejudice towards gays? Not exactly.

"It is good for the people to be informed, so that youngsters are not tricked or trapped into that kind of thing, that homosexual thing," she says.